How RHI Magnesita and innosabi Co-Created an Award-Winning Innovation Platform
How to implement an innovation management platform successfully: RHI Magnesita and innosabi's collaboration turned scattered ideas into sustained employee engagement.
For organizations wondering how to implement an innovation management platform successfully, RHI Magnesita's journey offers a proven blueprint. As a global leader in the refractory industry with over 12,000 employees spread across multiple continents, innovation was never the problem. With operations spanning from Austria to Brazil, from Europe to Asia, the company had no shortage of brilliant ideas. The challenge was connection: how to turn scattered insights into structured impact across regions, departments, and time zones.
The solution was not lying in deploying software but in forging a genuine partnership. Understanding how to implement an innovation management platform in a company requires moving beyond technology selection to focus on organizational transformation and cultural readiness.
When RHI Magnesita set out to create a centralized innovation ecosystem, they found a co-creator in innosabi; willing to work hand-in-hand to tailor a solution perfectly fitted to RHI Magnesita's unique reality.
Their journey demonstrates how innovation collaboration and co-creation can reshape not just workflows, but an entire organizational culture.
How to Successfully Implement an Innovation Management Platform: The Partnership Approach
Most companies approach innovation platforms as software rollouts; a one-time implementation with minimal ongoing engagement. RHI Magnesita and innosabi chose a different path: genuine partnership from day one.
innosabi's Customer Success Management approach focuses on empowerment over dependency. Rather than maintaining ongoing reliance on technical support, the CSM team invests deeply in transferring knowledge and building client capabilities from the outset.
This philosophy proved transformational for RHI Magnesita. Within days, the innovation team could independently configure complex workflows spanning multiple regions with varying requirements. Yet, this independence didn't mean isolation: responsive support remained readily available whenever needed, creating a balance between autonomy and assistance.
The result was more than operational efficiency, it addressed the critical stages of innovation from ideation through implementation. By building internal expertise rather than external dependency, RHI Magnesita gained the agility to adapt their platform as their innovation needs evolved, without waiting for external resources.
Rather than requiring clients to conform to pre-built structures, innosabi invests time understanding each organization's unique operational reality, whether that involves navigating multicultural dynamics, coordinating distributed teams, or balancing centralized oversight with regional autonomy.
The partnership approach centers on collaborative design: innosabi brings proven frameworks and best practices from across their client portfolio, then adapts them to fit each company's specific context and culture. This included integrating process innovation ideas that streamlined workflows while maintaining the flexibility needed for diverse regional operations.
This creates platforms that extend innovation strategies rather than constrain them.
For RHI Magnesita, this meant transforming from fragmented innovation management to a cohesive ecosystem that worked with their organizational structure, not against it.
The innovation platform that emerged became a central hub where open innovation comes to life, connecting employees across RHI Magnesita's global operations to turn ideas into measurable impact.
Before the platform, brilliant ideas existed in isolation: trapped in individual departments or regional offices. “There is no easy way to do it otherwise,” Chiara explains about the platform's role in helping employees discover solutions that already exist “within our company in other regions.”
Every employee, from R&D centers in Leoben, Austria, to manufacturing facilities accessible only by mobile phone, could now submit ideas and see what colleagues worldwide were developing. This visibility eliminated duplication while enabling teams to build on each other's innovations. Employees could now discover examples of process innovation already working in other departments, adapting proven solutions rather than reinventing the wheel.
Global idea challenges transformed how RHI Magnesita tackles specific business problems. These structured campaigns turn crowdsourced innovation into focused collaboration, connecting people across regions and departments who might never otherwise interact.
When launching a challenge, the team creates promotional videos featuring participants, shared company-wide. This visibility motivates contributors while inspiring broader participation, turning innovation from an abstract concept to a tangible, participatory process.
The platform provides what traditional innovation processes often lack: structure without bureaucracy. Ideas move through clearly defined stages of innovation—from submission to evaluation to implementation—with built-in feedback loops that ensure contributors stay informed at every step.
“The feedback is given directly through the platform,” Chiara explains. “It's very transparent and everything is documented there.” Every decision, comment, and evolution is preserved. “If I leave the company or someone else comes in, then it's easier also for this person to understand what happened, why we decided in a certain way.”
This documentation serves a crucial purpose beyond knowledge preservation, it maintains engagement. When employees see consistent follow-through on their contributions, they remain invested in the innovation process.
The partnership delivered measurable results that rippled through RHI Magnesita's entire organization, culminating in external validation: the company won the Global Award for Culture in 2025 for this innovation initiative.
The platform brought discipline to innovation without sacrificing the human element. Contributors gained visibility when their innovations advanced, while the tool facilitated community-building among innovators across the organization. Employees felt genuine ownership over their ideas and could trace their direct impact.
This cultural shift drove three tangible improvements:
Perhaps most importantly, the platform addressed innovation's most persistent challenge: sustained engagement over time.
Chiara's approach reflects the partnership's human-centered philosophy: “You cannot motivate people that are not motivated themselves in the first place.” Rather than forcing participation, the platform removes barriers for naturally curious employees.
The key isn't motivation tactics, it's follow-through. “People naturally try out new stuff and they try out the platform, but they stop doing that when they see that there is no follow-up on their ideas,” Chiara explains. Consistent, visible feedback maintains the engagement that drives sustainable innovation.
The RHI Magnesita and innosabi collaboration offers clear lessons for organizations considering innovation management platforms:
The most successful partnerships transfer knowledge and capabilities, not just access to software.
When learning how to implement an innovation management platform in the workplace, cookie-cutter approaches ignore the nuances of organizational culture, existing workflows, and employee dynamics that determine success. RHI Magnesita's multicultural, geographically distributed reality required custom solutions. The platform succeeded because it adapted to how the company actually operates.
Technology enables innovation, but human follow-through sustains it. Visible feedback loops and consistent communication maintain employee engagement when initial enthusiasm fades.
Well-designed idea challenges give innovation concrete form while creating natural opportunities for cross-functional collaboration. They transform participation from optional to compelling.
Efficiency gains matter, but the true measure of success is cultural transformation. RHI Magnesita's Global Award for Culture validated their focus on collective ownership over individual metrics.
Platforms must evolve with changing organizational needs. Ongoing support and openness to iteration ensure solutions remain relevant beyond initial deployment.
The collaboration between RHI Magnesita and innosabi proves a fundamental principle: innovation management platforms are catalysts for organizational transformation when implemented through genuine partnership, not only software rollouts.
And by treating platform development as a co-creation opportunity, RHI Magnesita achieved transformational results: a living innovation ecosystem connecting employees across continents while maintaining human connection at scale. The partnership approach enabled deeper customization and faster adoption than a standard implementation could deliver. The Global Award for Culture in 2025 validated this approach, recognizing innovation as truly collective effort.
For organizations considering innovation management platforms, the lesson is clear: seek collaborative partners, not software vendors. Look for those who invest in understanding your unique challenges, co-create solutions that fit your culture, and support your evolution over time.
That's the moment innovation platforms become transformational, reshaping how entire organizations approach innovation together.
RHI Magnesita turned scattered innovation into an award-winning ecosystem. Your organization can achieve similar results. Discover how innosabi's Innovation Management Platform adapts to your workflows, connects your global teams, and drives measurable outcomes. Request a demo.
Three things: make it accessible, provide transparent feedback, and show visible follow-through. Employees stop participating when their ideas disappear without response.
Software purchases focus on implementation. Partnerships focus on co-creation: understanding your culture, transferring knowledge, and adapting solutions to how you actually work, not forcing you into pre-built structures.
Connecting scattered insights across regions, eliminating duplication when teams don't know what others are building, and ensuring equal participation from headquarters to remote facilities.
Lack of follow-through. People try new platforms, but participation drops when they get no feedback or see ideas stall. Consistent communication and visible action maintain engagement.
